Meet The Engineer Who Created &apos;Bombay Shaving Company&apos; & Gave Indian Men The Perfect Tool For Every Shave

What do you do when you realise your four-years worth of engineering degree isn't quite living up to your expectations, and the sound of your career path ascending towards global partnerships isn't something you are looking forward to anymore?

Well, we are not sure about what anyone else would do in such a situation, but here is what Shantanu did - he bid adieu to his engineering degree from NIT Nagpur and quit his fancy job at McKinsey, to give men the best shaves of their lives. No, really. We are not kidding.

Shantanu Deshpande, a computer science engineer by degree and working with a globally recognised management consulting company McKinsey, ditched the “good life” in the blink of an eye, to give the smoothest shaving experience to the urban male population in India.

It was a conversation with his US-based childhood friend Manu that really triggered the idea of setting up one of India's best selling men's grooming brand, Bombay Shaving Company, in October 2015. The conversation that revolved around the boom in men's grooming startups in the United States, and how these new and quirky newbies were taking on FMCG giants like Gillette, sent Shantanu into a tizzy, with the need to explore similar opportunities closer to home.

After much research and deliberation, as well as detailed discussions with industry veterans, Shantanu realised that it was the right move to shake up the underserved and monopolised market - and there lay his chance!

Shantanu along with his Raunak Munot, Deepu Panicker and Rohit Jaiswal took the big plunge and co-founded the company playing on each one of their strengths, that seemed to completely fit with the company's core needs.

What started out as 500 annual shipments in 2016, has scaled up to 10,000 shipments a month today. What's even better news for Shantanu is that the official website sees 300,000 average visitors every month!

Today, Bombay Shaving Company functions on both online and offline routes of business, and their products are spread across four categories, namely shaving, bath, beard and skin. With a team of 60 young professionals, Bombay Shaving Company is trying to create a product range that distinctly stands out for its credible product quality.

Along with product innovations that the brand is trying to bring to their individual products, they are also trying to incorporate consumer feedbacks in their newest productions. Be it their single blade neo-retro razor or the beard care starter kit, each of their creation reflects the amount of research and passionate involvement that the final product has gone through.

It is Shantanu's vision and desire to see his team grow to its fullest potential, all with risks, mistakes and failures, that makes this brand so different from others. With these guys being so invested in grooming the urban men to perfection, the future for Bombay Shaving Company only seems more bright.

Learn about the many challenges and successes that Shantanu's decision reaped in the longer run, and how Bombay Shaving Company went on to fulfill Shantanu's larger dream of seeing well-groomed men walking the face of this earth, in this exclusive conversation with MensXP.